After leaving the Elemental Experiment Building, Adam headed to the tower. He needed to go to the Review Department to change the research project of his own laboratory.
Mage Irene was not there. A female apprentice he did not recognize was handling everything.
"Hello. Mage Irene isn't in right now. If you want to apply to establish a laboratory, please give me the certificate issued by the Academic Department. Once Mage Irene has reviewed it, I'll notify you at the first opportunity." The female apprentice did not know Adam, but she did not dare neglect him in the slightest. She had only gotten this job by good luck, and any apprentice who had the means to found an independent laboratory of their own was not someone she could afford to offend.
Adam handed her the contract establishing the spiritual power laboratory, which he had stored in his personal storage space. The female apprentice glanced over it and blinked. "A spiritual power research laboratory? You've already established a laboratory?" She had reason to be surprised. Every apprentice who had founded a laboratory up to now was in her memory, and Adam was absolutely not among them.
Adam nodded to her and said, "That's right. I'm applying to change my research project, from spiritual power research to research on the electrical element and related elements."
The female apprentice had never encountered such a request before. For a moment she fumbled about, at a loss for what to do, and after a long pause she looked at Adam, embarrassed, and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to process this..."
Adam was not in any hurry. For one thing, this was no small matter for an apprentice: the academy had to review whether an apprentice was qualified to conduct research before deciding whether to agree to invest. For another, besides the application, Adam still had to go back and inform the three people in his laboratory. "That's all right. But please come to my laboratory and let me know once Mage Irene has reviewed it."
James and the other two, along with Elliot, were all in the laboratory. They knew Adam had gone to a full-fledged Mage to have his questions answered, and when they saw him return, Elliot was the first to ask, "How did it go?"
Adam first handed them the information case's rune group recording the latest optimized version of the Psychokinesis Meditation Method. It was a more efficient construction method he had grasped during the whole year he spent ceaselessly fighting the despair monster. Building the meditation method that way could raise Adam's efficiency by nearly thirty percent, but correspondingly, it was even less friendly to ordinary apprentices.
The three took the meditation method but did not rush to study it. They kept looking at Adam.
Adam took out the contracts the three had signed with the laboratory and, under their puzzled gazes, said, "For certain reasons, the spiritual power research laboratory is going to be dissolved."
The three of them looked up sharply, and James could not help blurting out, "You're giving up? You've only failed to find a direction for the moment. You have plenty of time — there's no need to give up in such a hurry!"
If the laboratory were dissolved, James would be hit the hardest. His aptitude was poor to begin with, and without Adam's guidance he probably would not have a shred of hope left.
The other two were also stunned. In their impression, Adam was absolutely not someone who could be discouraged this easily.
Cackling, the devil popped out of Adam's mind and said, "Cack cack! It's because you're all too stupid, so my master is going to give up on you."
Adam rubbed two fingers together; electric sparks flashed and his fingers became a stun gun, which he flicked a bolt of lightning from onto the devil. The devil convulsed all over and collapsed limply to the floor. Elliot stepped forward and kicked it aside, then asked Adam, "My friend, this isn't the you I know..."
Adam waved a hand to cut Elliot off, then said, "I've found my research direction."
Elliot's mouth hung open; he did not know what to say. He had found it that fast?
Then Adam pushed the three contracts toward William and the others and said, "In the near future I will begin organizing the Electrical and Related Elements Research Laboratory. Research on psychokinesis will be set aside for the time being. You may choose to terminate your contracts with me — this counts as a unilateral breach on my part, and I will compensate you accordingly."
Before the three had recovered from the shock of this sudden news, Elliot was already shouting, "The electrical element? You want to research the electrical element? Do you have any idea that in the entire Mage Plane there is not a single mage who has achieved Transdimensional by specializing in the electrical element?"
William still did not understand what was going on, but James and Frank had come back to their senses as well. Ignoring the contracts for the moment, they said, "That's right, Adam. The whole Mage Plane's research on the electrical element lags far behind. You could say the apprentice-level electrical magic rune groups the academy holds are all that exist in the entire Mage Plane. Even high-rank mages can only use spiritual power to forcibly bind the electrical element and boost their spells' power."
Adam could not explain to them that this world's mages had fallen into a misconception in their study of the phenomenon of electricity. Even if he did say it, he would only be taken for a madman's arrogant delusion, so he simply did not explain. "I know. It doesn't matter."
Even Adam himself did not notice that this actually came from a certain stubbornness deep in his heart. Once the idea of never giving up had entered his mind, nothing external could ever change the goal he had set for himself.
This was conviction, and it made Adam all the more like a human being. If absolute, cold logic were still in charge, the old Adam would automatically have sought the optimal path to becoming a mage.
Seeing that their persuasion had no effect, the others shut their mouths. To them, this was simply a young man's obstinacy; once he ran into a bottleneck he could not break through, Adam would come to his senses on his own.
James sighed, then pushed the contract back to Adam. "I don't want to terminate the contract. I have nowhere else to go. I imagine your new laboratory will need people too?"
Frank was the same. The benefits psychokinesis — or rather, Adam's brilliance — had brought him were real and concrete. Over the past two years, the incompatibility between his shoddy mechanical body and living flesh had been almost entirely solved by psychokinesis, and thanks to the nature of psychokinesis, it would be relatively easy for him to walk the path of an alchemy mage in the future if he chose to. For the time being, he did not want to leave Adam's laboratory either.
Adam put their contracts away, welcomed them once again, and then looked at William.
William was in agony, a struggle he could no longer keep off his face. Only after a long while did he raise his head and say to Adam, "I'm sorry. I choose to withdraw."
William knew very well that he had already passed through the first difficult and dangerous stage by means of psychokinesis. Next he needed to pursue his own mage's path, and neither psychokinesis, which was pure spiritual power, nor the electrical element was his road. He needed to join a fire element research laboratory or take a fire-element full-fledged Mage as his master.
"Adam, I'm sorry, but I have to leave. I have no talent at all for the electrical element..."
"No need to apologize. I respect your choice."
Adam was neither surprised nor bothered. To him, William was merely an 'employee,' and it was perfectly normal for an employee to resign or jump ship. Naturally, paying compensation for breaching the contract was only right as well.
Adam handed the information case to William. "Inside is the optimal rune group I've constructed to date. You may use it free of charge, but from now on, if you want more, you'll have to pay."
"Give me your identity certificate."
After Adam took the identity certificate from him, he transferred the energy stone payment for the remaining term of the contract to William in one lump sum. William took it, gathered up all his belongings, and left the laboratory.
Once outside the door, he thought of Cristel. The girl had already found her own path — she might even have surpassed Adam by now. And now he had taken a new step of his own. He looked forward to standing before Adam in a different guise someday.
Adam did not have to wait long for word from the Review Department. On the third day, the female apprentice knocked on the laboratory door. In those few days she had learned who Adam was — the creator of the Psychokinesis Meditation Method, hugely popular among the newest apprentices — and a hint of reverence had actually crept into her words. "Hello. Mage Irene has asked me to tell you to go to the Review Department and see her."
Adam had no idea why the female apprentice had suddenly switched to honorifics. After receiving the notice, he went with her to the Review Department once again.
Mage Irene was as beautiful as ever, a gentle smile on her face as she looked at Adam. "I heard about what happened to you. Surviving Soul Rend is quite good. Interrupting your own soul advancement — very impressive."
Mage Irene had reason to praise him. At the apprentice-to-mage stage, the joy obtained during the soul's transformation was immense, and practically no one could tear free of that joy and make a calm choice. Yet right in front of her, a man who had been a mage apprentice for only a few short years had done exactly that.
The female apprentice listened to Mage Irene in a daze. Shallow as her knowledge still was, she could hear what the mage meant: the man standing before her had actually given up on his own advancement!
Adam bowed slightly and said, "You flatter me, respected Mage Irene."
Mage Irene took out the contract Adam had submitted, tapped her finger on the tabletop, and said, "There are some problems with your application."
Adam raised his head and looked at the mage.
"You should know that although establishing an apprentice-level laboratory is not as strict as for a mage, a basic theoretical achievement is still required. Before, you earned the right to found a spiritual power laboratory on the strength of the Psychokinesis Meditation Method. But now, if you have no theory on the electrical element to support you, then in principle the academy will not agree to let you establish a laboratory."
Adam was slightly taken aback. He realized he had forgotten about this. Theories about electricity, of course he had — he had plenty of even deeper theory — but none of it had been empirically verified. Not only had it never been fused into ether, he did not even know whether it would hold in an environment where ether existed.
Seeing his expression, Mage Irene knew Adam had not prepared for this. She pushed the contract straight back to him. "You don't have one? Then I'm very sorry. Your application is rejected."